Brown University Investment Committee Recommends Divestment from Coal

Earlier this week, in another victory for the growing movement pushing colleges and universities to divest from companies profiting from fossil fuels, a Brown University oversight committee voted to recommend that the university divest from the country’s 15 largest coal companies.

The divestment campaign began last October, when a student group, called the Brown Divest Coal Campaign, implored the university to stop investing in coal.

The committee, ACCRIP (Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies), is charged with ensuring that the university’s investments match the institution's ethical principles, and it has recommended divestment only three times in its entire history – from companies operating in Darfur during the genocide, from tobacco corporations, and from HEI Hotels. In each case, the board of trustees complied with the committee’s recommendations.

Emboldened by the announcement, student activists are now demanding that Brown’s board of trustees divest from fossil-fuel companies at its upcoming meeting in May. Brown’s president has confirmed that divestment will be on the agenda at that meeting.